Having thus given our opinion of the performance we proceed to confirm it by fuitable fpecimens. We beg the reader to form to himself fome idea how

The impaffion'd vow, at morning feal'd

On fair Cleone's lip, can be enshrined

Upon the heart,

and we should be happpy in his affiftance, to explain to us in what fenfe it can be afferted that

a precious gem, from ocean fav'd,

Amidst the general wreck, with virtuous hand
Lined the paternal couch with filial down,'

We apprehend it will fcarcely be contended, that it is very natural, fimple and profaic to talk

"Of the fair river, who with eafy flow
Glides filent on, and oft in paffing greets
His aged willows, that in waiting feem
To bow their bare and venerable heads
Along his tufted banks.?

Or of the whifpered gale which plays
On my Cleone's cheek, or fportive hides
In her luxuriant treffes, meriting

The etherial vifitant.'

What does the reader think of this lady when fhe vifits a cottage.

plucking the foft unadorned latch?

What idea does he conceive of a funeral, in which

'Six weeping damfels walk'd, while fix fad youths
Beneath in fable robes, their burthen bent?'

Or how does he relish a character, of which it may be faid,
A narrow cottage and an ample foul,

That would a palace fill with generous deeds,

Were now its whole poffeffion?'

But the non pareil of his performance appears to us to be the paffage in which he describes

Compaflions pang-relieving tones,

Henied as voice of cherubim, and smooth
As the dove's plumage, even the dove of peace;
Upon whofe downy breaft, the troubled foul,
Lull'd by the magic fong, forgets its rage
Feels its grief hufh'd, and finks fubdu'd to reft.'

We have heard of many fine voices, we have feen the con-
noifeur in raptures when he has defcribed the voices of a
Pacchierotti, a Gabrielli, or a Mara.
But all these per-

formers, in our humble opinion, are mere fools compared with a voice, that copes with honey, and is as fmooth as a feather bed, and befide all this has a breaft, a fine, broad, elaftic breaft, upon which even a troubled foul may get a nap, and, as it should feem, fairly take up its night's lodging.

But

But we have already faid, that the poem before us poffeffes feveral beauties of imagination and expreffion, that entitle it to fome regard. And we fhall by no means be fo partial, having exhibited a fmall fample of its vices, as not to give the author his full revenge by exhibiting, with equal fairnefs and unreferve, a fpecimen of its beauties. And in the first place we will felect two or three expreffions, which appear to us deferving of much commendation for their mellownefs and unction. Refpecting the firft of thefe we have a kind of loose and indecifive idea of having met with it bere, but we dare not on fo vague a ground charge it with plagiarifm.

For when did folly love, or when shall know
The cherished grief that buns fociety.

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the ruddy bloom

The village bell, with melancholy found,
Rings out the knell of death at every paufe
The difmal tone admits, my throbbing heart
Suggests to fancy's ftartled ear the hour,
When fhe, who now is feated by my fide,
(On the due motion of whofe wholefome pulfe
My being hangs) fhall wake a note like this!'

The following paffage has a degree of descriptive merit.
The redd'ning weft

Announc'd the setting fun, and mellower tints
Painted the firmament: Sirius all day

His flaming car had driven along the sky
With kindling rage. But now the breeze of eve,
From her coor grotto, ventur'd forth to dip
Her feathers in the rill, and in the air
To take her twilight circuit: as the fhook
Her humid pinions, nature felt reftor'd

Thro' all her works, valley, hill, and ftream:
Bird, beaft, and man, the balmy effence hail'd!
Seafon of univerfal calm !-all breath'd

Ambrofia-Ah! what an hour for love

Now almoft wedded love-to steal unseen

From all eyes but their own!-Such fweets to taste,

Walk'd forth AGENOR and his deftin'd bride.'

We fhall add two paffages of a different kind. The author thus defcribes the eve of an approaching marriage.

Ah interval of every foft excess

The human heart can prove fufpenfe divine!
Fill'd with each ardent hope and rofeate fear,

Where PLEASURE meets her ancient foe, meets PAIN,
With fuch unwonted fmiles upon his brow,

His temples bound with fweet-briar, to denote

Aş

As well the fragrant leaf as pointed thorn,
(Emblem of wedded blits and mifery)
PLEASURE herself the myftic garland takes,
And grants a truce, and is a league with PAIN:
So foft the figh, fo fweet the tear he brings,
When virgin Innocence by manly Truth
Is led to Hymen's altar.'

A circumstance, attending the evening of a fine day, is thus portrayed.

And laft we note the intermixing fanes,
Abodes of rapt devotion-which the fun,
As confcious of their fanctity, invests
With orient light, that like a glory plays
Upon the holy fpire, and fainted tower!'

These paffages, though perhaps in ftrictness they have in them too much of the Ovidian and the pretty, will not fail to contribute to the entertainment of the majority of readers,

R.

ART. VI. An Epiftle from the Rev. William Mn, to the Right Hon. William Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Petitioning for the vacant Laureatfhip. 1S. no Printer's Name. THOUGH the poetry of this fictitious epiftle be not equal

to that of the author, whofe name it humorously bears, it is above mediocrity, both with regard to wit and verfification. After this imaginary poet has promifed his patron an eternity of fame, on condition of complying with his request, he concludes with the following lines.

• Tell then thy fov'reign (fhould he chance incline To bid the Laureat's luxury be mine,

Affur'd with Horace, that no bard fhall lack

The fweet enjoyment of a butt of fack
Tell him-that if I foar not like a Pindar,

May lightning blaft my pinions to a cinder.
Tell him that every blush of New-Year's day,
My Mufe fhall more than Whitehead's worth display,
And foaring far fuperior to the themes

Of war-worn armies, or a nation's dreams,
Triumph, as oft fhe pictures to his view,
"That work to wonder at"-imperial Kew!
Tell him-her heart fhall glory, thro' her lays,
Affociate of his hunts, to trace the maze!
Tell him, in fine, his favors to repay,
Her zeal fhall tear Macgregor's mask away,
And crush the monfter who could dare afperfe
Scenes, that fhall flourish in my living verfe;
While genius haftes to hang with fadelefs flow'rs

Thy throne, O Albion, and thy laureat bowers."

In the first verfe the ufe of chance, instead of by chance, is a poetic licence, which is very unjustifiable.

ART.

ART. VII. London unmask'd, or the New Town Spy. By the Man in the Moon. Adlard. 28.

IT

T is obferved by moralifts, that the best diffuafive against vice, is to exhibit her in her native and undifguifed deformity. She can only deceive when decked in falfe trappings and borrowed charms. Whoever therefore is moft dexterous in difrobing her of this deftructive attire, is moft likely to promote the caufe of virtue and morality. Folly may not, perhaps, be improperly termed the infancy of vice; and, fince difeafes, we are told, are most effectually cured, when oppofed in the firft ftage of their progrefs, by ftriking at thofe foibles which difgrace mankind, we may rescue them from thofe evils which would effect their deftruction.

The work before us has confiderable merit in placing in a ftriking light the various follies and vices with which this populous city abounds. From it the unexperienced may collect many ufeful leffons to prevent his being impofed on by the artful and abandoned and thofe who are not quite callous to every remonftrance of truth and reason, will, it is to be hoped, blush when they fee the exact picture of themfelves, and be careful to reform their conduct.

That our readers may be able to judge for themfelves, of our author's style and manner, we will prefent them with his reflections on the prefent conduct of fashionable married

women.

"If we advert to the original ftate of many things, we must be aftonished to discover the improvements they have undergone, and the grandeur to which they have attained, from low and obfcure beginnings. Poetry took its rife from hymns and proverbial fayings; the majefty of the tragic mufe, once confined to carts, now vaunts under ftately roofs. Who would imagine that the vain, gaudy creature, Woman, who now triumphs over her mafter Man, was once his obfequious handmaid, and proud in a primitive ftate to adminifter to his pleasures? Nor was he then taught to belie the ftrong impulfes of nature, or esteem it modefty or virtue to withhold her charms from a fincere defiring lover.

'Coquetry was a much more modern vice, introduced when altars were reared to their worship, and coarfe homely matrons were transformed into goddeffes. Farewell the charms of innocence, and that lovely fimplicity with which nature had cloathed them: these elated beings forgot their priftine state of dependance; long services, fighs, and proteftations, were now the only means of courting their favours. Poets with florid compliments railed them to a degree of divinity. All that fhin'd on fhells and rocks were brought from far, and half nature laboured for the embellishment of their perfons. Thus, by degrees, they became fo refined, as to plant the horns on the foreheads of the lords of the creation, and affert fovereignty in all domeftic concerns. • The

The beauteous Helen feems to have had fo great a fimilitude in manners to many of our modern females, that it will appear an eafy tranfition to come down from thofe toafts of antiquity, and point out by what steps and variations our modern British ladies have arrived to that degree of politenefs they now exhibit. To make en tertainments, and prefide at tables, feems to have been the utmost ambition of our great-grand-mothers; they feldom mixed with public affemblies, or (as we of a more libertine age term it) sparkled in the circles of the gay. They would have fwoon'd at the very mention of a masquerade, and to have expofed their charms to the view of every coxcomb would have been as criminal as the fin of witchcraft. They never heard or dreamt of that wicked innovation called pin-money, for they had no other expenfes than what were fupplied from the hufband's purfe. To lie in feparate beds with them was hideous, nor has their eyes been taught to roll, or even indicate an illicit defire.

'But thefe old fashioned virtues are exploded, and pin-money, the parent of many ills, procures the indifpenfable requifites of a train of luxuries, and may fometimes be converted to the purpose of secret fervices. A variety of commodities too numerous to be particularized may not improbably be conjectured to fwell out the pinmoney account of feveral of our city as well as court ladies. With what courage then must that man be endued, who would venture on one of thofe fashionable belles, for a domestic wife, and chufe fuch a partner to go, hand in hand, through the difficulties of life? For women of the character described find no other use in a husband, than to afford them an opportunity of carrying their defigns into execution with a better grace.

Nor will a man of prudence find it his intereft to marry a perfon of fuperior rank or fortune, if thus fafhionably educated and difpofed, as infinitely more expenfes will accrue than he could imagine, and many more injurious accidents will happen, than he could poffibly forefee.'

In this entertaining volume the reader will pay a visit to almost every refort of diffipation in this metropolis, and it will be his own fault if he does not at the fame time reap both amusement and inftruction.

ART. VIII. An Effay on the Law of Libels. With an Appendix, containing Authorities. To which are fubjoined, Remarks on the Cafe in Ireland of Attachment; and the Letter of the Hon. T. Erskine, on that fubject. Svo. 2s. 6d. Dilly. THIS treatife is acute and ingenious. The author enters

minutely into the nature of Libels, and explains diftinctly the different kinds of them. He also canvaffes the liberty of the prefs, and delineates the powers of a jury. Upon thefe delicate points he is exceedingly inftructive; and his work cannot be diffused too extenfively.

To Mr. Capel Lofft the public is indebted for the present performance;

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